First Week of Graduate School

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March 5, 2013 by tvo320

Graduate school has commenced! In case someone doesn’t know, I will be pursuing my Masters in Governance and Public Policy at the University of Queensland (UQ) in Brisbane, Australia. UQ is ranked among the top 100 universities in the world and top 3 in Australia!

I made it through my first week and my first assignment is due later today. One thing I have learned so far, graduate school is not for the faint of heart. I’ll share my first semester course load and then you can tell me if you want to jump on board. All of my classes are in the evening which has its pros and cons.

1. Dynamics of Public Policy
2. Economics Analysis and Public Policy
3. Globalization, International Political Economy and Development
4. Development Planning in Developing Countries- Theory and Practice

Course Profiles!

All of my professors have published articles, written books, worked for policy making in the Australian government, or done something awesome I have not learned yet. I remember flipping to a reading assignment in one class and realizing the author was my professor in another class.

Course Readers

At the beginning of most of my classes, the professor asked for a show of hands if you were from a certain area in the world. He forgot to ask if anyone was from North America! I was really taken by surprise and realized that I am one of the few Americans in my program. Luckily, due to group assignments, I met one other American named Evangeline and guess where she is from!? TENNESSEE. I was over the moon. To make it even better, she’s from Franklin. My classmates are from all over the world: Pakistan, Palestine, Ecuador, Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Nigeria, El Salvador, etc. I love the diversity and the issues that different countries have on the same topic such as poverty.

Essays will be taking over my life from here on out. If you don’t here from me from time to time, it will be because I am drowning in my 4,000 word case study asking me to analysis decisions or events to explain or illustrate wider themes, issues, and theories about the policy-making process. I’m excited to think critically and understand the depth of policy making process.

To sum it up: GRADUATE SCHOOL = LOTS OF READING + LOTS OF ESSAYS